Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. By that definition, anyone who thinks that "free trade" will improve life for middle class Americans is insane.

Real hourly wages in America have been almost flat since the 1970s, when the modern age of "free trade" and globalization began. American manufacturing jobs peaked in 1979 at just below 20 million; today, there are fewer than 12 million (as population increased from 225 million to 315 million).

The cure for free trade, we were told, was more free trade, so the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994. As presidential candidate Ross Perot aptly put it, the "giant sucking sound" that followed was five million more manufacturing jobs going overseas since then.

NAFTA did something that hardly seems possible: It impoverished both American workers and Mexican farmers, while enriching only huge multinational corporations.

At the same time, our trade deficit — our exports minus our imports — has exploded. In 1975, America ran a trade surplus. There were deficits from 1976 through 1993, but none higher than $160 billion.

Starting in 1994, when NAFTA went into effect, the deficit has never been below $160 billion, and for three years in a row (2006-2008), it exceeded $800 billion a year. Last year, the American trade deficit was $741 billion.

Nevertheless, America has signed 12 other free trade agreements since 2001, including with Nicaragua, where the per capita income is less than $5,000 a year, and El Salvador, which has no minimum wage.

Now, the Powers That Be want to extend free trade status to dozens of other countries across the Atlantic and Pacific. These include poor countries like Vietnam, which pay many workers pennies per hour with no benefits, don't respect worker safety or the right to organize, do little to protect the environment or consumers, and often employ prison labor.

These new "free trade" agreements have very little to do with free trade. Instead, they authorize foreign corporations to attack and destroy American health, safety, environmental, labor and consumer protection. They reportedly allow foreign corporations — not American businesses — to bring lawsuits against our government, seeking damages for any laws that reduce their profits. Those cases are decided not by federal judges, but rather by corporate lawyers and lobbyists, acting under the rules of the United Nations and the World Bank. American law does not apply.

Canada has agreed to such a provision. It has been sued for deciding against exporting its water, for keeping a pollutant out of its gasoline supply, and for taxing oil company windfall profits.

For five years, these agreements have been negotiated in secret. Five thousand corporate lobbyists were allowed to see the drafts, but not a single member of Congress could do so. I was persistent, though, so a few weeks ago, I became the first congressman to see the current drafts. The U.S. Trade Representative slapped a "CLASSIFIED" stamp on the drafts, however, to try to prevent me from telling people what I saw. Nevertheless, I told people that these drafts are "a gross abrogation of American sovereignty" and "a punch in the face to the middle class in America."

Job losses and flat wages are not inevitable — they are the result of bad policies like free trade. Trade giveaways already have substantially undermined our quality of life; extending them just would make things worse.

If you value American sovereignty, you should demand that your elected representatives vote against free trade agreements, and repeal the ones we've got. Nancy Reagan had it right: "Just Say No!"

Alan Grayson, of Orlando, is a Democrat who represents Florida's Ninth Congressional District.